Closed factory’s staff call for court warrant

Some 50 representatives of 400 workers at the Co-Seek garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district protested in front of the municipal court yesterday seeking a warrant to prevent the shuttered factory’s property from being sold until their back wages are paid.

Lor Sopheak, a deputy president of the Cambodian Youth Power Union League, said workers had become concerned that the factory’s assets were being sold off after they saw some equipment being moved out in August, shortly before work ceased in early September.

“The court official told the workers that the court will issue a warrant after the court gets enough documents,” he said, adding that workers “always sleep [outside the factory] to protect the company’s property” from being sold.

Hon Seng Hon, one of the protesting workers, said workers still hadn’t been paid for August and that the sale of the company’s assets was the only way to finance their back pay.

“We are afraid that property was sold off without finding a solution for us, because up till now . . . our wage is not yet paid, and we are having difficulty finding other jobs immediately,” he said.

Sen Siha, another worker, said the factory had paid some workers their base wages, but not overtime or extra benefits.

Reached yesterday, factory administrator Loo Kokchhay would only acknowledge that “some workers had already been paid their wage, and some had not”.

MOST VIEWED

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Friday to protest against Cambodian strongman Hun Sen, who claimed to have been gifted millions of dollars by the Australian government ahead of a special Asean summit this weekend.
An estimated 300 protesters, the majority of

An American citizen was arrested on request by the US Embassy in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, according to Cambodian police.
Major General Uk Hei Sela, chief of investigations at the Department of Immigration, identified the man as American Jan Sterling Hagen, and said he was

Updated: 5:20pm, Friday 16 March 2018
An Australian tourist and a Cambodian soldier were killed in an explosion on Thursday afternoon at an army base in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province.
The Australian, whom the government initially identified as a technical demining expert in his 40s, and

When the man passed away, he had not yet reached 50.
He belonged to a tribe that had settled near the Sangker River in Battambang province, likely cultivating the fields and raising animals. On the side, they hunted for boars, and even turtles, one of which